Selfishness that benefits the whole

[integral]

A selfish act can still benefit the whole. That's how most of society runs, and the government's job is to control and coordinate selfishness. 

That's the heart of capitalism. To take the individual selfishness of everyone and make them all play a game together, so their actions benefit the whole not just themselves.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Except selfishness is not really the decisive distinction between the two. In order to win in capitalism, you need to become a highly efficient human being who's cognizant of other people's needs. And you need to keep being that way or else your business fails, or you'll possibly get fired from your job. Etc. So you may be selfish but your frame of mind and your actions cannot be actually selfish or else you won't succeed. If you compare that with the people in goverment, all they need to do is to pretend like they're gonna deliver something and then just baricade themselves for years and do nothing

[Jodistrict]

This is a charming myth propagated by economic schools.  But the fruits go to the top who manipulate the financial system and provide no real value in return.